Microplastics in the marine environment: current status, assessment methodologies, impacts and solutions

Microplastics exhibit a global distribution and have been detected in all levels of the marine environment. The most visible and disturbing impact of microplastics are their ingestion and consequent suffocation of hundreds of marine species. Microplastics can contribute considerably to the transport of non-indigenous marine species to a new area thereby threatening the marine biodiversity and the food web. They can also accumulate toxic substances on their surface therefore represent a potential concentrated source of environmental pollution or act as a vector of toxic pollutants in the food web with some severe health implications. Therefore, assessment of the status, effect and mitigations are needed. The current status, effects and solutions to the occurrence of microplastics in the marine environments were conducted by reviewing most of the literatures on the subject matter. Here, we particularly discussed old and new techniques for extracting and quantifying microplastics from marine matrices. Although, it is an intricate and herculean task to address the problems of microplastics in the ocean, some of the approaches to mitigate them are discussed.